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FROM THE FIELD

Women flood survivors missing from State's focus
16 Sep 2008 15:10:00 GMT
 Source: ActionAid International- India
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Three weeks after floods hit, women are missing from states' focus
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Three weeks after floods hit, women are missing from states' focus
ActionAid/Parvinder Singh
Humanitarian crisis in Bihar continues to unfold even after three weeks since Kosi River smashed through an embankment upstream in Nepal destroying thousands of homes and displacing over 4 million people.

Several thousand flood survivors live in cramped camps without amenities looking at an uncertain future, even as Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called for a long-term rehabilitation plan.

The prime minister gave this call at an emergency meeting of the National Disaster Management Authority on September 12.

Some of the announcements by him are in sync with demands by civil society groups engaged in relief, including ActionAid and Citizens Forum for Floods in Bihar, a state-wide coalition of people and organisations.

Among a range of issues highlighted by Singh, providing safe drinking water and sanitation in camps and surveillance of public health threats are listed as immediate priorities.

He has also asked for a long-term plan for rehabilitation of flood affected people, which included immediate support for cultivation of new crops.

Women's needs

However, what is missing is any mention of the needs of women and specific measures for their safety.

"Young mothers, infants and pregnant women are definitely the most vulnerable and face difficult times ahead," says Lajwanti, an ActionAid partner running Rajpura camp in Supaul district.

Single and vulnerable

"I am expecting a baby anytime and need a safe place. I managed to plead for a boat ride along with my two-year old," says 18-year-old Bachri Khatun. She like most women in the Baghala camp was married very young and is in final term of her pregnancy.

"I had been drinking flood water while trapped on top of a school building," she adds while trying to cover bamboo sticks with a tarpaulin sheet. Her story is echoed by hundreds of women who are living in these camps.

When the flood water swept villages of Supaul early morning of 19th August, women were left scrambling for help with their children. Bachri herself was trapped for 15 days before managing to reach Lalpatti.

These areas have a large number of single women households as men from the villages get sucked into India's booming urban centers, looking for work.

Loss of home and livelihood

"My child has no clothes and has been bare bodied ever since we escaped. His body is full of mosquito bite marks," says 25-year-old Nandani Devi, as she holds up her seven-months-old daughter.

"I am getting food from the community kitchen. But I am unable to feed my baby," she adds.

"We are poor and everything has been washed away by floodwater," says 19-year-old Shanti, on being asked, what her thoughts are about going back after flood water recedes.

"The water will take sometime to go down and after that we go back poorer than we already are. We work as farm workers and live on daily wages. Now the fields are under water," Bija Mantri.

According to official figures, crops worth 23 million INR have been destroyed in the ongoing floods with property damages to the tune of 17 millions INR.


[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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